This brew was served from the tap at HopCat in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It arrived in a generic nonic, glowing the color of burnt caramel. It held a one finger head of soapy, tan bubbles, showing lower retention. As it quickly dissipated, mountainous lacing was left all around the glass. A chill haze was noted, with no sediment, and active carbonation. The nose gave pale and lighter caramel malts, mild tannins, lemon hops, blue raspberry tartness, mineral, tinny metallics, and white flour. Our first impression was that the flavoring exemplified a nice but standard IPA, with good grit on the back. As we sipped, the taste opened with an initial flash of honey sweetness, with quick mixing of dirty pale malts, orange rind bitterness, resiny and citric hops, and nectarine sweetness. Moving to the peak was air and floral hops, vegetal bite, tin, raw caramel and barley bite, citric rind, pale toast, and yeasty grit. The end came as a creamy follow through, with soured lactics, sweet cream, mineral, stone, grainy toast, and clovey phenols. The aftertaste breathed of gritty mineral earthiness, resin, white flour, green bark, soft peppermint, citric hop bitterness, tinny metallics, pseudo-coffee rumbles, sweaty saltiness, and newspaper inkiness. The body was medium, and the carbonation was medium. Each sip gave soft slurp, cream, froth, smack, and pop, with a nice frothy coating and drying tannic astringency. The lips were left feeling a bit sticky. The abv was appropriate, and the beer drank easily.

Overall, what we enjoyed most about this beer was its nice drinkability. The sip was decently even throughout, and the beer glugged back smoothly. The nose and the flavoring, however, were both just not as robust as we would have liked. The aroma was muted, with the hops fizzling out a bit with warmth, while the malts also tended to take over in the flavoring, allowing for more dirt, grit, and phenolic spice to shine through. This is a pretty standard effort, but sits nicely as a house IPA.

Smell: Not nearly as fruity as the Double Chin I had -- this is more earthy with pine and some citrus.

Taste: Like the smell with a solid bitterness on the finish. The bitter bite on this is a bit more than some other standard IPAs. Tasty stuff, and at only 5.7%, easy to session. Enjoyable, but not a mind blower.

On tap at the brewpub. Served in a nonet. Dark amber; clear; small but durable head leaves excellent lacing. Musky/earthy/bubblegum aromas from the hops are dominant.The taste is similar, but bitter rather than sweet. Quite bitter, grapefruit rind aftertaste.